Schlumberger shares were unchanged at $71 in morning
trading. Cowen Securities analyst Jim Crandell said revenue in
Europe and Latin America, in particular, fell short of his
estimates.

Third-ranked Baker Hughes' profit also topped estimates, and
the company forecast a modest increase in U.S. rig counts for
2013. As the United States starts to clear a natural gas glut
created by the hydraulic fracturing revolution, prices for the
fuel have improved, reducing the drag on drilling activity
there.

"North America took a step in the right direction," Baker
Hughes Chief Executive Officer Martin Craighead told analysts on
a conference call on Friday.

Baker Hughes shares were down 0.7 percent at $44.28.

While overall earnings were down 30 percent from a year
earlier, the company said increased drilling in Canada and a
strong pumping business lifted its first-quarter profit in North
America from the previous quarter.

UBS analyst Angie Sedita said Baker had a solid quarter in
the Middle East as well as North America, two areas of relative
weakness in the past. "We expect further margin gains ahead (at
a measured pace) across regions in 2013," she wrote in a note to
investors.

Looking at signs that U.S. land drilling was improving,
Barclays analysts said the number of permits issued in the
country rose by 8 percent in March from February.

SCHLUMBERGER CAUTIOUS ON NORTH AMERICA

Schlumberger, which said last month that North American
activity was weaker than expected, said it was
still uncertain about the region. Low natural gas prices had
made drilling for gas uneconomical in many fields and weighed
down the prices charged for services like pressure pumping,
which is used in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

Schlumberger, whose main offices are in Paris, Houston and
The Hague, generated roughly two-thirds of its 2012 revenue
outside North America, insulating itself from the
always-volatile drilling region more than Halliburton or Baker
Hughes did.

Schlumberger CEO Paal Kibsgaard said the outlook for
drilling activity in international markets and for liquids in
North America remained "pretty solid" at current oil prices.

Kibsgaard stuck with his forecast that client spending
outside North America would rise 10 percent this year, lifting
Schlumberger earnings by a double-digit percentage rate.

Schlumberger's first-quarter net income fell 3 percent to
$1.26 billion, or 94 cents per share. Excluding items, it was
$1.01 per share, while revenue rose to $10.67 billion. Analysts
had expected earnings of 99 cents per share on revenue of $10.7
billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Strong activity in Canada and solid results from the U.S.
Gulf of Mexico only partially offset weakness in U.S. land
drilling, the company said. While U.S. natural gas prices
rose 15 percent in the quarter, drilling has not yet bounced
back, and gas producers have trimmed 2013 exploration budgets.

As for Baker Hughes, its first-quarter net income fell to
$267 million, or 60 cents per share, from $379 million, or 86
cents per share.